10 Signs Your Marriage is in Trouble

With the divorce rate rising day by day, it's important to nurture your relationship in order to safeguard your marriage against divorce. But how do you know if you are headed that way? Take a look at 10 signs that will tell you whether your marriage might end in divorce.

Harsh conversations: Starting a conversation with sarcasm, accusations and derogatory comments can bring the marriage to the brink of divorce. Constant criticism whenever there's an effort to make conversation will most likely result in a bitter ending without any solution.

Lack of team effort: With time, couples stop communicating and the most important factor is the ‘I’ factor. Couples need to work as a team; but if that stops and you are not working on the day to day issues together anymore, then the foundation of your marriage is getting weak and divorce might be on the cards.

Spending time together: After marriage, each partner is often busy with their own schedules, but finding time for each other and spending time together is what makes all the difference. When you stop prioritising each other over friends and others and start moving in separate orbits, then it’s a sign of serious trouble.

Compromising no more: Understanding is a very important factor in every relationship. You need to understand each other’s needs and work accordingly. At times to make your partner happy, you might have to compromise or let go of something that is not as important as your love. As this fades away so does the hope that the marriage will survive.

The child issue: Having a child often binds couples together. Those late nights, staying awake, taking care of the child and getting involved in the child’s life brings couples closer. If one partner refuses to have a child, it sometimes is a sign that love has run out the door.

No repair: You try to repair the relationship and the marriage and want to go back to the time when sparks flew. But if you are being stonewalled by your partner and his lack of willingness to engage in conversation, then the likelihood of divorce is high.

Body language: Body language is the biggest giveaway when it comes to relationships. Shoulders hunch up when you are tensed or nervous and increase in heart rate is visible through fidgeting. When one partner starts to get tensed around the other, is aloof and starts to get fidgety, a flight or fight mode is on which can do nothing but harm the marriage.

The four walls: The biggest identifiers of “love lost” are contempt, criticism, defensiveness and stonewalling.These characteristics present in communication, according to world renowned marriage and parenting researcher John Gottman, kill the chances of marriage revival.

Bad Memories: Couples filled with negativity and contempt often view the relationship through a pessimistic lens and distort the memories which once good start to look sour. This outlook impacts the past, present and the future perception of the marriage and contribute to the demise of a marriage.

Negativity: If you have started to overwhelm each other and are flooded with negativity every time you are in each other’s company, just know that the relationship is headed towards doom. When you start feeling detached and emotionally shut down, you know your marriage is on the rocks.